San Francisco vindicator., 1887-05-16
THE FIGHTING PROPENSITY.
An Amusement TOR which Men and AMI
mails Have a Great Liking.

An Amusement for which Men and AMI
mails Have a Great Liking.
Men and anisnaIs are born with pro-
pensity to fight. Is there in the whole
range of the animal creation one animal
that does not fight, if it has sense enough
and powers of locomotion?
Oysters land CLAIMS cannot fight. If
their organ of combativeness is not want
ing, they have no use for it. Lobste, $
fight and are wonderfully voracious.
They even devour each other. and may
be said to eat themselves; for, changing
their shell and stomach every year, these
remains are generally the first morsel to
glut their new system. The life of all
fishes is one of perpetual warfare. The
carnage of the sea exceeds that on dry
land. Bees fight savagely, both in
swarms and singly. Two bees, having a
quarrel, go out armed with their deadly
stings- more formidable than ten inch
Bowie knives-go out of the hive and
fight duel. Ants fight with great
ferocity. Armies of ants meet other
armies in deadly battle and cover the
field with killed and wounded. They
also fight duels. This is the case with
many other insects. Spiders not only
fight, but eat each other like human can
nibals. From the elephant to the mouse
the quadrupeds fight, even the gentlest,
under sufficient provocation.
Cats swear and spit at each other, fur
pulling and blood letting being their great
delight. A long time ago, one summer
night, all the cats in the city and county
of Kilkenny were absent from their
homes, and the next morning plain near
the city was strewed with thousands of
slain cats, and it was supposed that almost
all the cats in Ireland joined in the fight,
as was shown by collars on the necks of
some of the dead bearing the names of
places in all quarters of Ireland. There
are men alive who knew persons, since
dead, who actually inspected the field.
A monkey has been known to whip a
large bulldog. We believe the whole
monkey tribe as it approaches humanity
increases in pugnacity.
Most all birds, from the ostrich to the
humming bird, are fighters. The male
ostrich frequently administers chastise-
ment to the female by kicking her heartily
around the paddock until she is under
control. Whenever it happens that two
humming birds meet among the flowers
they signal the encounter with shrill war
cry, and dash at each other in fierce antag
onism. For an instant they close together,
then give each other chase, and with the
speed of meteors are lost to view. Shortly
after the return of one alone announces
that the victory has been quick and de-
cisive. Diminutive as are the puny
sprites, they are heavily charged with
combativeness. The entire race are pug
nacious and quarrelsome, imprudently
assaulting each other and birds of much
greater size. Even the hawk is not safe
from their attacks, and has been seen
whipped by them, So excessive is the
pugnacity which characterizes the game
cock that broods scarcely feathered are
occasionally found to have reduced them
selves to utter blindness by their COM
bats. When two game cocks meet they
have a way of crouching and pointing"
at each other; then they advance with
heads erect and fury in every movement,
fly at one another, each endeavoring to
drive his spur into the head or breast of
his adversary. In heraldry the cock is
the emblem of strife, of haughtiness, ef
quarrels and of victory.
AS to man-do we not know that his
history is a history of war? In the saw
age state tribes are in continual warfare.
In barbarous nations these fierce contests
are prosecuted on q larger scale. How
seldom were the tribes of Greece at peace!
How seldom closed the doors of the tenn
pie of Janus in ancient Rome! Read the
history of modern nations, and how fire.
quent are the wars, how brief the inter-
walls of peace! 1t is estimated that nearly
Z, 200, 900, 900 of human beings have per-
ished in the battles which man has waged
against his fellow creature but
there is scarcely battle of the last three
centuries which can at all rival in de-
structiveness many ancient struggles.
From rough calculation taken from
the returns of those left dead ON the fields
of battle in which Napoleon commanded,
from Mentonotte to Waterloo, we find
the amount 1,911,5 The Crimean
war caused the destruction of 7S4,90
lives; the war in Italy in 1857, 45, 900;
in Schleswig- -Holstein, $500; our own
war, 800, 900; the Prussian and Austrian
war, $4,000; the war in Mexico and
China by the English and French, 5000,
and the Prussian and French war, 100, 900
"a grand total between 1853 and 1880 of
1850, 900 lives.
What do people not fight and quarrel
about? Is there anything that has not
been the germ of ''row?" Nothing
under the sun, we believe, from pin to
q new baby's name. There was Euro
pean contest of twelve years arising out
of the mischance of a politician having
spilled q cup of coffee on the silk gown of
one Mrs. Marsham, who was a sort of
genteel waiting maid to Queen Anne,
with very great influence over the not
very sensible mind of her majesty. In a
moment of irritation-and q spoiled bro
cade would try any woman's temper
she gave advice, which her royal mis-
tress followed, contrary to the pacific
predictions of the awkward coffee
spiller, and the result was the involv-
mcnt of England in a long and costly war.
Troy Times.
Erence,. Two OYSTER Beds,